Delivering national public mental health – experience from England
| Published date | 17 June 2019 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JPMH-06-2018-0032 |
| Date | 17 June 2019 |
| Pages | 112-123 |
| Author | Ian F. Walker,Jude Stansfield,Lily Makurah,Helen Garnham,Claire Robson,Cam Lugton,Nancy Hey,Gregor Henderson |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care |
Delivering national public mental
health –experience from England
Ian F. Walker, Jude Stansfield, Lily Makurah, Helen Garnham, Claire Robson, Cam Lugton,
Nancy Hey and Gregor Henderson
Abstract
Purpose –Mental health is an emerging health policy priority globally. The emphasis on closing the
treatment gap in psychiatric services is now being complemented by an increasing focus on prevention
and health promotion. The purpose of this paper is to describe the programmes and delivery of public mental
health in England led by Public Health England (PHE), an arms-length body of the Department of Health
and Social Care.
Design/methodology/approach –This technical paper outlines the general approach PHE has taken in
delivering national work in public mental health and describes several key areas of work: children and young
people, suicide prevention, workplace and workforce, strategic engagement with stakeholders, data and
information and evidence synthesis.
Findings –A description of the various programmes and guidance documents that PHE have produced are
described and referenced, which form a substantial body of work in public mental health.
Practical implications –The outputs from PHE may assist in informing the approach to public mental health
that other government agencies could consider adopting. The resources described and signposted within
this technical paper are publicly available for readers.
Originality/value –England is one of a small group of countries that have a track record in delivering public
mental health at a national level. This paper gives a unique and detailed insight into this work.
Keywords Prevention, Public health, Policy, Wellbeing, Public mental health, Suicide prevention,
Government, Mental health
Paper type Technical paper
Introduction
Mental health is an increasingly important field in global health policy (Patel and Saxena, 2014;
Kleinman et al., 2016). Mental health problems make a substantial contribution to the global
burden of disease, especially to years lived with disability, with depression being the largest
single cause (Whiteford et al., 2013; WHO, 2017). Many governments across the globe are now
measuring the wellbeing of their populations as a barometer of social progress and development
(Durand, 2018).
Recent policy priorities in global mental health have focussed on closing the treatment gap:
improving the proportion of individuals experiencing a mental health problem who are able to
access effective psychiatric treatments locally (Eaton et al., 2011; Patel et al., 2010). This is rightly
a policy focus globally, but not alone in importance. For instance, the current global mental health
action plan (WHO, 2013) also highlights, as one of its four key objectives, the implementation of
strategies for the promotion and prevention of mental health. This objective falls within the field of
public mental health (PMH) which is an aspect of public health that takes an upstream approach
to mental health and wellbeing and particularly focuses on mental health promotion and the
prevention of mental health problems at a population level (Wahlbeck, 2015). The sign
of its growing importance is demonstrated in its inclusion within the recently agreed
sustainable development goals (Target 3.4: by 2030 reduce by one-third pre-mature mortality
Received 6 June 2018
Revised 21 December 2018
Accepted 11 March 2019
© Ian F. Walker, Jude Stansfield,
Lily Makurah, Helen Garnham,
Claire Robson, Cam Lugton,
Nancy Hey and Gregor
Henderson. Publishedby Emerald
PublishingLimited. This article is
publishedunder the Creative
CommonsAttribution (CC BY 4.0)
licence.Anyone may reproduce,
distribute, translate and create
derivativeworksofthisarticle
(for both commercial &
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to full attribution to the original
publication and authors. The full
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http://creativecommons.org/
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This work was supported by
Public Health England but no
funding was received for the
writing or publishing of this
technical paper. The views
expressed in the publication are
those of the authors and not
necessarily those of Public Health
England or the Department of
Health and Social Care, UK
Government.
(Information about the authors
can be found at the end of
this article.)
PAGE112
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JOURNAL OF PUBLIC MENTAL HEALTH
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VOL. 18 NO. 2 2019, pp. 112-123, Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 1746-5729 DOI 10.1108/JPMH-06-2018-0032
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